Australia has been well known as an inviting destination for international students. However, now that students are returning after the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, things on the ground are not quite rosy.
In this data story, I have utilized open data to analyze if students are returning to a country in which living expenses like rent have outpaced students’ capacity to pay for them.
The role of international education in Australia’s economic life is quite considerable, although there have been difficulties with the influx of students into the country throughout the pandemic period. However, according to available open data, the number of international students is rising again. It is unclear, however, whether it is still affordable for them.
There is no equal distribution of recovery in the various sectors. It must be noted that higher education remains the biggest sector within the international student system, with the growth of VET also being significant recently. However, it would be important to determine whether those conditions that they are returning to are still affordable.
Enrollment figures illustrate that Australia remains an attractive destination for overseas students. However, such figures do not indicate the financial viability of their experiences. The next challenge lies with accommodation because, for most students, rent forms the biggest and least avoidable cost.
The return of international students is only one side of the story. The harder question is what kind of rental market they are returning to. For students studying in Melbourne, rent is often the largest weekly expense, so rising rents can quickly change whether study in Australia feels financially manageable.
The average rental rates in some locations in Melbourne that have campuses and student accommodation facilities have experienced an increase significantly from the time of the pandemic. What makes this relevant is that it means more than just the international students returning to Australia but also returning to rental costs that make it hard for them to remain close to their learning institutions.
Rent may be the most obvious form of pressure, but other costs, such as those for food, transport, energy, and education, also add up to affect students. This can be shown by using CPI figures. Rent appears to be the obvious pain point, yet students are burdened with other daily expenses such as food, travel, utility bills, and even education-related expenses. CPI figures can assist in determining the scale of this problem beyond just the housing crisis.
The problem of affordability is much more extensive than just renting accommodation. As evidenced by the CPI numbers, there are several areas of cost-of-living that have increased, including food, energy, travel, and education. For international students, this does not concern some indexes but real-world costs associated with living and studying.
Price increases pose a challenge by themselves; however, affordability also comes into play when one considers whether incomes increase as well. When it comes to international students, the issue becomes relevant due to the fact that many depend on part-time jobs to earn money for themselves.
This allows the squeeze effect to be better visualized by indexing both lines to the year 2022. The greater rate of increase of rent over income means that students have to work for more hours or rely on more outside help just to keep their standards of living at the same level.
The squeeze is not felt equally across Melbourne. Some areas are more expensive than others, which means location can shape whether student life feels manageable or financially stretched.
Affordability does not apply uniformly at the level of the country but is determined by the affordability that applies to where people choose to live. Affordability in each location within Melbourne illustrates how unequal the renting situation is.
Local comparison indicates the reason behind the variation in experience among students in Melbourne. Those living in the vicinity of campus life will definitely experience more cost pressure than those from outer areas that may be less costly but entail greater commuting expenses. Affordability for foreign students is not determined by national data but by their realistic options of where they can afford to stay.
There clearly lies a dilemma in the figures presented here. Australia continues to attract students from across the world, and the effects of the pandemic on enrolment numbers appear to have been reversed. However, it must be noted that students are coming back to a different environment – where rents in certain areas of Melbourne have increased, costs of living have risen, and rent growth seems to outpace wage growth.
It should not be assumed that Australia is no longer an attractive location for education. This is simply saying that the idea of a “fortunate country” is taking on a more complex dimension. For students from overseas, access to education now comes with a more difficult financial question to answer. To be truly welcoming to overseas students, there must be consideration of their ability to access life in Australian cities.